All those rumors of a Playstation 4 reveal at E3 2012 have just been dashed by Sony executive Kaz Hirai. The Wall Street Journal reports that during an interview roundtable with reporters at CES 2012, Hirai, who is the head of Sony's consumer electronic division, answered a question on that topic by saying that, " ... we are not making any announcements at E3."

It seems that Sony still plans to stick with the Playstation 3 console for a while longer. The console, which launched in 2006, is over five years old now. However Hirai stated, "I’ve always said a 10-year life cycle for PS3, and there is no reason to go away from that.”

So it would appear that all those rumors of a PS4 reveal at E3 in June in Los Angeles, followed by a late 2013 launch for the console, are now been silenced. Nintendo still intends to reveal more about its upcoming Wii U console at E3 this year. There are also rumors that Microsoft might give the world the first look at the successor to the Xbox 360 at that time as well.

In related news, Gamasutra reports that during its CES 2012 news conference earlier in the week, Sony mentioned that so far it has sold 500,000 units of its new PS Vita portable consoles in Japan since it launched in mid-December. The console will be released in the US and Europe on February 22.